The best Apple Watch apps you probably haven’t heard of

There are already more than 3,000 apps for the Apple Watch, which makes it difficult to find all of the hidden gems. How do you find the best Apple Watch apps?

Luckily, there are plenty of third-party Watch apps that deserve attention, whether they tell you when it’s going to rain or help you get stuff done. Apple is promoting Watch apps heavily in the App Store, and while the big players (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) are obvious downloads, we’ve been on the lookout for some of the other apps for the Apple Watch you might not know about.

Here are some of the best Apple Watch apps to trick out your wrist.

(This list is being updated with more great apps, so check back often.)

Workflow lets you complete hundreds of automated actions on the Apple Watch, from calculating the tip to translating text.

“When Apple announced the Watch, we thought Workflow would be an awesome fit,” developer Ari Weinstein told Cult of Mac. “It’s just so powerful to be able to create complex automations, or just simple shortcuts, and trigger them from a tap on your wrist.”

Hours is already the best time tracking app for the iPhone, and it makes even more sense on the Apple Watch. The apps developers have an interesting post on Medium about designing for the Apple Watch and why they decided to make Hours free.

The best journaling app simplifies recording your day on the Watch by letting you dictate a quick entry, use a last photo taken, and quickly input activities.

“Day One for Apple Watch was designed to capture a moment without leaving the moment, to create a starting point for a journal entry that can be expanded upon later,” said developer Paul Mayne. Learn more about the app on Day One’s blog.

Social

The best third-party Twitter client for the Watch so far, Twitterrific is broken down into the Glance, Recent Activity, and Notifications. You can read more about the details in the app on The Iconfactory’s blog.

News

Circa is another great example of a news curator doing good work on the Watch. The app sends notifications on the most important breaking news and stories you’re following. A quick Daily Brief of the day’s news is also sent to your wrist once a day.

Travel

Transit is one of the best public transportation tools on the iPhone, and its developers have done a great job of bringing the most necessary information to the Watch. Get directions home, a breakdown of your daily itinerary, and map pins of where to get picked up and dropped off.

You’re in a restaurant in Spain and wish you knew how to say “fork.” That’s where Babbel comes into play. It presents helpful translations in 14 languages based on the context of where you are and what you’re doing.

Fitness and Health

One of the apps Apple showed off on the Watch at its first September event, Strava is designed for athletes to track their workouts in “run” and “ride” modes, which is a feature Apple’s built-in Workout app doesn’t have.

Food

Cooking with an iPhone in hand is never a good idea, so it’s completely natural for recipe apps to make their way to the Watch. Epicurious lets you work with recipes from its vast database and the Watch serves as your instructor, reminding you when to stir, pour, etc.

Entertainment

Why would you want to djay from your wrist? Algoriddim thinks the functionality something Djay users will latch onto, and so it’s created perhaps the most full-featured Watch apps we’ve seen yet.

You can pick and synchronize songs right on your wrist, and the interface is surprisingly good at completely such complex tasks. The music has to be coming from the (free for a week) iPhone app over Bluetooth, but Algoriddim assures us that’s developed some “magic” to keep the user from experiencing any noticeable lag.